I read this book back in the 1990s and just re-read it as my interest in learning about and practicing mindfulness has been high recently. I thoroughly enjoyed it it again.
Wherever You Go, There You Are is written from a mostly secular / scientific point of view. The author Kabat Zinn does reference the Buddhist roots of mindfulness, but the book is not religious nor is Kabat Zinn a monk. He is the creator of a mindfulness-based stress reduction program at the stress reduction clinic at the University of Massachusetts medical center.
Stress is a huge problem for many people and having stress management and coping tools could not be more important for so many reasons. I work in the health and fitness field and mindfulness is especially valuable to people who are endeavoring to eat for health and weight loss and avoid eating mindlessly or for emotional reasons. Mindful eating is a valuable skill to have.
Mindfulness in daily living - being fully in the present moment - as well as mindfulness meditation and the focus on the breath are among the best of the stress management tools. As Stanford psychologist Kelly McGonigal has said, "Stress is the enemy of willpower." Meditation and even simple breathing exercises can reduce stress and improve self control
As a fitness coach I teach my clients and readers the importance of mental training, not just physical training. Most people, especially those only exposed to sports psychology, usually think of mental training as goal setting, controlling self-talk or using affirmations and visualization. But we could also say that mindfulness meditation is the original and oldest type of mental training, as this passage from the book explained:
"Im told that in Pali, the original language of the Buddha, there is no one word corresponding to our word "meditation," even though meditation might be said to have evolved to an extraordinary degree in ancient Indian culture. One word that is frequently used is bhavana. Bhavana translates as "development through mental training." To me, this strikes the mark - mediation really is about human development."
I highly recommend this book. It may be the singe best place to start learning about mindfulness. It's a full length book at about 270 pages, but it's easy to read and has short chapters, most about 2 to 5 pages long.
This was first written in 1994 and I still have that original paperback. I picked up the newer anniversary version (2010) for my kindle because it was inexpensive and I wanted to see what was in the update. I know more scientific evidence about mindfulness and meditation has been discovered recently, but this is not the kind of information or practice that goes out of date. After all, it's thousands of years old.
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Who cuts the pages like this? They are infuriating to flip.Content seems good though.
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P. Mattirolo
A good book on meditation, although much too verbose to my taste
Reviewed in Italy on May 28, 2020
